The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-06-18
The Wolf.

 peated the story often; for he related it fluently, never hesitating over words skillfully chosen for picturesque effect. Gentlemen, he said, never hunted ill my life, nor my father either, nor my grandfather, nor even my great-grand- father But my great-grandtather was the son of man who hunted more than all of you put together. He died ill 1764. l am going to tell you how. His name was Jean. He was mar ried, father of the child destined to become my ancestor; and he lived with his younger brother, Francois d'Ar- vile, in our old chateau in Lorraine, which was situated ill the forest.
 Francois d'Arville had remained bachelor for pure love of hunting.
 Both of them used to go hunting together; they hunted from one years end to the other, without rest, with out pause, without ever getting tired. That was all they liked. all they understood, all they talked about, all they lived for.
 It was passion with both of them terrible, inexorable. It consumed them, filled their entire being, left no place for anything else.
 They had given orders that they were never to be interrupted while hunting, under any pretext whatever. My ancestor was born while his father was chasing fox, and Jean never thought of stopping his hunt on re- ceiving the news; he only swore- "Nom Pun nom!-the little rascal might very we'll have waited till after the death!"
 His brother Francois was a still more furious hunter As soon as he got up of morning, he would go to look after the dogs and the horses; then he would shoot birds around the chateau until the time came to start on chase for bigger game.
 The country people used to call them the Marquis and the Junior. Both were extraordinarily tall, bony, hairy, violent, and strong. The younger, who was still taller than his brother, had voice so powerful, that according to popular saying which he was proud to hear repeated, all the leaves of the forest trembled when he shouted.
 And when they started off on horse back for the chase together, it must have been fine sight to see the two giants bestraddling their great horses. Now, about the middle of the win ter of 1764 the cold became excessive, and the wolves grew ferocious.
 They would even attack peasants going home late; they prowled around ho 1Yrv.s hn .nh lod from sunset until sunrise, and depop- ulated the stables.
 And after time, very ugly ru- nor began to spread. It was said that a colossal gray wolf. which had eaten two children, devoured woman's arm, strangled all the watchdogs of the country-showed no fear of enter ing enclosures and regularly went about at night, smelling under the doors. All the country people de- clared that they had felt his breath that it made the lights flicker. And panic seized upon the whole prov ince. No one dared venture out after dark. All the shadows seemed haunted by the image of the beast.
 The d'Arville brothers resolved to
 
 vited all the gentlemen of the country to great hunt.
 It was all in vain. They secured all the forests, searched all the thickets without avail; they could never find him. They killed plenty of wolves, but not that particular wolf. And each night regularly, after the hunt, the animal would attack some belated traveller or devour some animal-as if just to avenge himself-and this al- ways at quite distance fromwhere the last hunt had taken place.
 At last one night he got into the pig-sties at the Chateau d'Arville, and devoured the two finest pigs.
 The brothers became full of rage- considering this attack as an open de- fiance on the monsters part. They got all their largest and best trained hounds together, and went to the chase in great fury.
 From earliest dawn until the red sun began to sink behind the naked trees, they secured the thickets in vain. At last, disappointed beyond measure, and angered in proportion, they began to ride homewards at walk, along a road bordered with high bushes, wondering the while how all their science could have been hAfiied by this wolf-feeling suddenly sort of mysterious fear.
 The elder said:
 "That's no common animal. Seems he thinks like . man,
 The younger replied:
 Perhaps we ought to get our cousin, the bishop, to bless a bullet